Face masks are worn to filter out contaminants and protect the health of the wearer. For example, surgical face masks are worn by medical personnel in operating rooms. The face masks protect the medical personnel from infectious agents that may emanate from a patient undergoing a surgical procedure. In addition, the face masks protect the patient from infectious agents produced by the medical personnel
There are several types of face masks. One type is flat. Flat face masks are either pleated or folded to allow for some fitting of the mask to the curvature of a human face. Another type of face mask is “cone” or “cup-shaped” mask. This type is a molded mask.
All face masks need to fit against the face of the wearer. The size of the human face varies greatly from one person to another. Some faces are smaller and require small face masks, while larger faces require larger masks. For example, children have small faces and require smaller masks than adults.
In the prior art, face masks have been made in several sizes. For example, flat face masks have been made in small and large sizes. Stocking several sizes of face masks adds to inventory problems.
In public health crises, such as pandemics, having multiple sizes of face masks can cause problems. Pandemics require large numbers of face masks in a short period of time. Consequently, the masks must be manufactured in advance and stockpiled. Stockpiling masks of a particular size requires some guessing. Public health officials desire to avoid a situation where, during a pandemic or other high need crisis, a particular depot runs out of a particular size of face mask. For example, a depot may run out of child-sized masks, but have adult-sized masks still in inventory. An adult-sized mask will not properly fit a child and thus will not adequately protect.
Thus, what is needed is a face mask that can fit many sizes of faces.